WSATools developer reveals "rightful" reasons why Microsoft yanked his Android app sideloader for Windows 11

We reported a week ago that Microsoft had removed WSATools, an APK installer for the Android subsystem for Windows 11, from the Microsoft Store for no clear reason.

The developer, Simone Franco,  was later contacted by Microsoft to resolve the issue, which Franco said was “rightful”, but did not expand on further.

Now Franco has finally revealed the reasons for the removal and they seem somewhat trivial.

One reason was that the app only worked for Windows 11 Insiders, and only in the USA, where the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) was available. This dependency was not clear in the listing, with Franco writing:

the first one is that the app must work for the majority of users since the app is based on WSA, that is a feature only available in insider builds + only in the US, then it won’t work for a lot of people (regular/not insider users and even users outside of the US)

This issue was easily resolved by making the dependencies on WSA clear in the listing.

The second issue was that the app failed Microsoft’s automated certification process. Franco published the app privately in any case, but the app was ultimately likely automatically removed by further automated certification checks.

“From what I’ve understood, WSATools had one of these automatic certification checks the day after the 0.1.56 update was pushed, and it was removed,” noted Franco.

The last was to do with the name, with Microsoft feeling WSATools may appear to be an official tool.

Franco writes:

WSATools has… WSA. Microsoft doesn’t like this, even if “WSA” is not trademarked, but I understand why. They don’t want the app to be believed or misunderstood to be official.

Microsoft suggested either the name be changed or the listing otherwise makes it abundantly clear the app had nothing to do with Microsoft.

Franco believes the app will become publicly listed once these issues are corrected, but it remains available privately here.

via Neowin